COLUMN: Yes to good English

Sholeh Patrick’s call for a Mrs. Language Person theme in her column is a laudable endeavor in view of the fact that a segment of the under-30 crowd speaks/writes almost solely in texting acronyms, i.e. LOL, OMG, etc.

Sholeh’s attempt to educate your readership in English usage reminds me of a senior English professor at a prestigious college teaching the English 101 freshman class in one of its cavernous auditoriums. His subject for the day was the use of double negatives.

“In its nonstandard form two negatives are used for emphasis when only one negative is needed,” he said. “A good example is from the 1948 movie, ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,’ when the bandito posing as a Federale and challenged to show his badge, exclaimed, ‘Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges.’”

“In the standard form two negatives resolve into a simple positive, ‘I do not disagree,’ implies ‘I agree,’” he said. “However, two positives used together can never become a negative.”

The auditorium fell silent as this lesson sank in. Then from the back row came a loud exclamation, “Yeah … Right.”

MIKE SATREN

Hayden